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Sleep Your Way to Skinny

Obesity is an epidemic and has many causes. One of them is that the average night’s sleep has dropped from 9 hours a night to 6.75 hours a night over the last 100 years, and sleep is responsible for many weight and appetite controlling hormones, such as the growth hormones, leptin, phrelin and ghrelin. So can you really sleep your way to skinny? Many studies suggest you can.

Obesity is an epidemic and has many causes. One of them is that the average night’s sleep has dropped from 9 hours a night to 6.75 hours a night over the last 100 years, and sleep is responsible for many weight and appetite controlling hormones, such as the growth hormones, leptin, phrelin and ghrelin. So can you really sleep your way to skinny? Many studies suggest you can.

How much sleep is optimal for staying thin? Between 7 and 9 hours is best. Less than 7 hours increases the risk of obesity approximately 30% and adds an extra 5 pounds on average.

According to Jean-Philippe Chaput, MSc, from Laval University in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, and colleagues, "Current treatments for obesity have been largely unsuccessful in maintaining long-term weight loss, suggesting the need for new insight into the mechanisms that result in altered metabolism and behavior and may lead to obesity."

The increase in body weight in the US population has been paralleled by a reduction in sleep times. For the past 4 decades, daily sleep duration has decreased by 1.5 to 2 hours, and the proportion of young adults sleeping less than 7 hours per night has more than doubled, from 15.6% in 1960 to 37.1% in 2002.

Studies in adults and children have repeatedly shown that reduced sleep is associated with increased weight.

To determine the relationship between sleep duration and weight, researchers followed 276 adults aged 21 to 64 who were enrolled in the Quebec Family Study, a 6-year study in a community setting. The investigators compared weight gain relative to 3 categories of sleep duration ― short (5-6 hours), average (7-8 hours), and long (9-10 hours).

Compared with average-duration sleepers, short-duration sleepers gained 4.4 pounds more in a 6-year period. At 6 years, short-duration and long-duration sleepers were 35% and 25% more likely to experience a 12-pound weight gain, respectively, compared to those who slept 7 to 8 hours a night.

Compared with average-duration sleepers, short-duration sleepers had a 27% increased risk for the development of obesity, and long-duration sleepers had a 21% increase in risk. Adjustment for caloric intake and physical activity did not affect these connections.

Love & Blessings,

Dr. T

Blog written by Jacob Teitelbaum, MD
Dr. Teitelbaum overcame Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia in 1975, and since then has helped hundreds of thousands...